Coca Cola And Pepsi Change Recipe To Avoid Cancer Warning

Drink giants Coca Cola and Pepsi have altered their recipes in order to avoid having to display cancer warnings on their products, they announced on Thursday.

The new recipe for the caramel colouring used in the drinks has been changed to comply with California laws. The state has added 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), an ingredient used in the fizzy drinks recipes, to its list of carcinogens.

The manufacturing process will be modified in order to reduce the levels of 4-MI which can formed during the cooking process.

The change, which has already been introduced in California, will now be rolled out across the US as manufacturers claim the alteration makes the drinks more efficient to manufacture.

The drinks have been linked to cancer in mice and rats but an individual would need to drink 1,000 cans of Coke or Pepsi to take in the same dose of the chemical given to animals in the lab tests, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.